Afghani-scandal?

Ok, I just went back through all the emails I get from my right-wing relatives and other careless forwarders of chain letters debunked by snopes.com 10 years ago. Survey says most of the tin-foil coated conspiracy theories permeating my inbox are OUTRAGED about the supposed “Ground Zero mosque” (read: Muslim community center a few blocks from Ground Zero, further away than McDonald’s and strip clubs).

Kabul has finallyleft the dark agesand now offers expat bars for journalists and diplomats alike, where alcohol serves as the lubricant for self-congratulatory war stories and chest-beating. And how convenient: you don’t have to deal with any pesky local Afghans either. With the exception of Afghanistan’s upper echelon, Afghans aren’t allowed in. Under Afghan law, the sale of alcohol to Muslims is prohibited.

Let’s just keep score here for a second. A community center operated by Muslims near the site of 9/11 = bad because radical Islamic terrorists perpetrated the crime. But opening businesses that violate the laws of the nation that was oppressed by those same radical Islamic terrorists for decades = good idea because, um, it doesn’t offend US.

In other words, the only sensibilities worth protecting are those of WASPy Americans?

It doesn’t get more colonialist than invading a country, setting up shop, selling a prohibited, culturally and religiously forbidden product like alcohol…